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Japan Appealing a Ruling Aiding Victims of A-Bombs

The Japanese government is seeking to overturn a court ruling early this month that provided the first compensation for survivors of the 1945 atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki who now live overseas.

The Justice Ministry said today that it had appealed a June 1 Osaka District Court decision that ordered the local government to pay a Korean survivor of the Hiroshima bombing $17,000 for medical care that the prefecture had halted after he left Japan for Seoul.

Explaining the reason for the appeal, Mayumi Moriyama, the justice minister, said that when Parliament passed the Atomic Bomb Victims Relief Law in 1994, the legislation excluded the estimated 5,000 survivors of the bombings who live abroad.

''This is totally inhumane,'' said Kwak Kwi Hoon, 77, the South Korean plaintiff, who was serving in the Imperial Japanese Army and suffered a spinal injury during the atomic attack.

''I think Japan is dragging its feet waiting for A-bomb survivors to die,'' Mr. Kwak told reporters. ''We don't have much time left.''

Legal experts said it could take several years for the appeal to make its way through the courts, leaving overseas survivors, who live mainly on the Korean Peninsula and in Brazil, with little or no means to pay for treatment.

The current Japanese law excludes all survivors who live overseas, both Japanese and foreigners. They are eligible for free medical treatment and financial support if they return to Japan.

Groups representing bomb survivors in Japan and overseas said the government's decision to contest the ruling was particularly onerous because many victims now living abroad were forcibly brought to Japan to serve as laborers during the country's colonial occupation of much of Asia before World War II.

Jeong Gihwa, secretary general of the Special Committee for the Welfare of Korean Atomic Bomb Sufferers in Hiroshima, sharply condemned the appeal, saying the 2,000 atomic bomb victims living in Korea would suffer greatly.

''We have been fighting a long time for support for victims residing outside Japan, and it appears that the plight of these people is still not understood,'' he said.

Tadatoshi Akiba, mayor of Hiroshima, said the appeal was ''extremely disappointing'' and vowed to increase pressure on the government to extend medical benefits to all victims regardless of their residency. ''As a city, we have been working hard to eliminate nuclear weapons and establish world peace,'' he said, ''but the government must do its part to take responsibility for all victims.''

The appeal today contrasted sharply with a surprise move last month by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to let another district court ruling stand that ordered the government to pay compensation to leprosy patients who had been confined to sanitariums for decades after a cure for the disease was discovered.

Mr. Koizumi was widely lauded for his compassion after he ordered the government to issue a formal apology and was seen on television shaking hands with leprosy patients.

Mr. Koizumi's aides had said the administration planned to challenge the leprosy ruling because it would leave the government open to similar lawsuits and because the district court had granted compensation for rights violations beyond a 20-year statue of limitations.

Asked to explain the difference in the way the government handled the two cases, Hideki Hama, director of the Justice Ministry's administrative litigation division, said: ''The leprosy case was an exceptional one in which the patients had suffered historically, directly at the government's hands. The victims of the atomic bomb are also suffering but you can't value one over the other.''

Mr. Hama said the government was simply following the strict letter of the law, which allows for victims to receive compensation for medical treatment only in Japan. In legal matters, especially those involving compensation, Japan has traditionally adopted a rigid stance. Mr. Hama said the appeal was also based on a 1999 case in a Hiroshima district court that ruled in favor of the central government in a lawsuit filed by atomic bomb victims living in South Korea.

Hiroshi Tanaka, a professor of sociology at Ryukoku University who has written extensively on the rights of non-Japanese living in Japan, said that behind the government's appeal was a disturbing trend towards Japanese ethnocentricity. ''Mr. Koizumi's administration clearly views Japanese victims different from non-Japanese,'' he said. ''It's common sense in the global area for any country to provide compensation for all people who are eligible, no matter where they live.''

Koizumi administration officials have expressed concern about the public criticism that is likely to result from the appeal and said they are seeking measures to assist bomb victims living overseas, including providing transportation allowances for the victims to come to Japan for treatment.